South African Beach Tennis: Its Origin and Future

Visit any beach in South Africa during the festive season and you’ll see a wide variety of people playing a simple form of beach tennis with a paddle and ball. This demonstrates that beach tennis is fun, easy to play, and appeals to all ages. It offers a simple and easy entry point into our sport, and we think it is a dynamic platform from which to grow tennis in South Africa.” — Richard Glover, CEO of Tennis SA in 2018

How it all started

I clearly remember the first time we played Beach Tennis, or “Tennis on the Beach,” some nine years ago. TopspinSA and the Clubview Tennis Club in Centurion hosted an all-night fun tennis tournament with mini-matches of 5 minutes per court on five courts, eventually finishing with Beach Tennis on the volleyball court. As expressed by everyone, the highlight of the tournament seemed to be the informal Beach Tennis finale, and that is also how Beach Tennis unofficially started in South Africa. Iain Smith, the Chairperson of Clubview Tennis Club at the time, has since become the Head of Beach Tennis SA, and today we have a proud SA Beach Tennis team.

What is Beach Tennis?

Think about a mixture of beach volleyball and tennis. Initially played on a beach but with a tennis ball and racket, it has now evolved into more than a mere beach game. There are two types of beach tennis in the world: beach tennis with a paddle, and Beach Tennis USA. Beach Tennis USA is similar to beach volleyball, but a racket with strings instead of a paddle is used. The most popular version of the sport is played with a beach tennis paddle and a stage 2 tennis ball.

Why has it become so popular?

Beach Tennis is played in over 50 countries with more than 500 000 players worldwide. It is fun and easy to play, arguably the main reason it is gaining popularity. Players find it easier to learn than most racket sports. Even a beginner can easily pick up a paddle and play, and it is even simpler for people who have previously played tennis, table tennis, squash, or badminton. This increases the fun factor of the game, hence the popularity. Tennis SA called it the “fun tennis” of the future, as it is a game that all ages and playing abilities can play.

In addition, Beach Tennis offers an excellent cardio workout with low impact on the knees and joints due to playing in the sand. Because of the sport’s similarity to tennis, it is very popular among tennis players as an additional activity, but it is by no means reserved for tennis players only. More and more recreational clubs are bringing in Beach Tennis to increase their offering to athletes and to meet the demand of people playing the sport.

Actor and former USA Senator Arnold Schwarzenegger gives celebrity status to Beach Tennis in SA, as he hosts the Arnold Classic Africa event in SA every year. (Pictured below with some South African and international players at the 2019 event in Sandton, Gauteng.) Organisers believe the ACA event is a perfect platform to develop Beach Tennis and help grow participation from a young age.

Is it a competitive sport?

Beach Tennis is an approved International Tennis Federation (ITF) discipline. South Africa is one of 47 countries worldwide where the sport is actively being promoted and played on a competitive level. The ITF Beach Tennis World Cup, formerly known as the Beach Tennis World Team Championship (2012–2019), is a mixed competition in which nations compete against each other as a team. Each team comprises two men and two women, with ties consisting of a men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and a mixed doubles match.

TopspinSA is proudly associated with the development of Beach Tennis in SA and has been one of the team’s official sponsors in many events, including their participation in Russia, where our SA team achieved 15th place in the pro finals in 2019. The Russian Tennis Federation has been the host of the tour’s flagship team competition since 2012.

How to play Beach Tennis
Basic rules and scoring

At its most basic, the ball is not allowed to touch the ground and is played only with volleys, returning the ball with a single hit to the other side of the court. Beach Tennis adopted most of the rules and scoring of tennis. Below are the basic rules and scoring:

· Touching the line is in
· Points are 15/30/40, with sudden death at 40-all
· Players switch sides after the end of odd games: 1, 3, 5, and so forth
· Similar to volleyball, points start with a serve and end when the ball touches the ground
· The serve starts from anywhere behind the baseline to any of the opponents, and play continues if the ball touches the net
· You only get one serve
· You can serve underhand or overhand, but in mixed doubles men are expected to serve to ladies underhand from below the waist
· The winner is the team who reaches 7 (or 9) games with a margin of at least two games
· A tie-break is played at 6 (or 8) games all

Turquoise, the No. 1 Beach Tennis paddle, is sold exclusively by Topspin in SA.

What equipment would you need to start playing?

In its most informal form you need two paddles and a tennis ball. For more competitive games you would need four Beach Tennis paddles, a tennis ball, a net set, court lines, and a court.

Beach Tennis paddle

While various paddle sizes are allowed in Beach Tennis, the maximum length should not exceed 55 cm, the width should not exceed 30 cm, and the weight should be between 320 and 370 grams. The heavier the paddle, the more powerful, and the more challenging to manoeuvre.

Like all sports, Beach Tennis paddles are available in a wide variety with different levels of quality and can be categorised into three groups:

1. Social or Beginner

2. Intermediate or Semi-pro

3. Professional

The following graph gives a visual of the racket range, with Control on the y-axis and Hardness on the x-axis, resulting in maximum power. However, the more you move towards the right, the more expensive the racket becomes due to the material used in manufacturing.

Paddles consist of a profile or frame, a core, and a hitting surface covering the body. The various components are made of different materials but fused to form one unit. The core of a paddle consists of foam or EVA rubber or a combination of the two. EVA is more durable than foam but more expensive. EVA is harder and therefore more challenging to play with when you are a beginner (less power, more control). The surface and frame of the paddle are typically made of glass fibre, carbon fibre, or a combination of the two.

What is the price tag?

The price of Beach Tennis paddles is determined by the materials used to manufacture them. The most basic paddle is the classic old wooden or plastic racket used on a beach holiday. You may remember how they tended to break between the handle and the paddle surface and would often not last the duration of your holiday. Cheaper versions of good Beach Tennis paddles are still available, but if you want to play a little more seriously, I recommend starting with a glass fibre racket from a respected brand. As with most things, cheaper usually means sacrificing quality for price.

Beginner paddles are usually made from glass fibre with a foam core and start around R1 000 to R1 700 per paddle. Intermediate rackets are a composite of materials similar to a professional paddle but with glass or carbon fibre and foam or EVA composites. These are excellent paddles for a longer-term investment and come in at R1 700 to R2 500 per paddle.

Professional paddles are mostly made of 100% carbon fibre. There are different types of carbon fibre, for example 3K, which means 3 000 monofilaments per carbon fibre harness. The more carbon, the more expensive the paddle, so expect to pay anywhere from R3 000 to R5 000 for a professional paddle. Professional players often pay more for personal customisation and special unique surface finishes than the original paddle.

View special offer on semi-pro paddle

The ball used in Beach Tennis

Beach Tennis requires a depressurised tennis ball (stage 2 orange dot ball) to allow for longer rallies, as the stage 2 ball travels more slowly through the air than a standard tennis ball. The Unlimited Stage 2 ball is the official SA Beach Tennis ball.

The court and net

The sport is played as doubles on a sand playing surface of 16 x 8 metres, divided into two equal parts by a 1.7 metre high beach tennis net. The net has small meshes so that the ball cannot pass through. The sport was initially played with a higher net, similar to beach volleyball at 2.2 metres, but was later lowered to 1.7 metres to increase the speed and excitement of the game. Although Beach Tennis is mainly played as doubles, it can also be played as singles, decreasing only the width of the court to 4.5 metres with the same length.

Do you need a beach to play Beach Tennis?

The most common misperception is that you need a beach to play on. The beauty of the sport is that it can be played anywhere. If you have two paddles and a ball, you can have an informal, casual game anywhere. When you fall in love with the game, you might imitate Ferdi Louw (pictured below) and build a Beach Tennis court right in your backyard. Ferdi spent some time in Brazil and enjoyed playing the sport so much there that he made his own Beach Tennis court at his house in Cape Town. All you need is space and approximately 40 cubic metres of sand.

TopspinSA designed and manufactured this portable inflatable court, which has been used at Beach Tennis Nationals in Bloemfontein, Arnold Classic in Johannesburg, Davis Cup, and many tournaments across South Africa.

In Part 2 I will discuss some venues where Beach Tennis can be played, what you need to do if you want to be considered for the SA Beach Tennis team, how the sport started and developed in the world and in South Africa, as well as the current world rankings and events to look forward to.

Until then, happy paddling.

Philip van Antwerpen
Online supplier of Beach Tennis and Tennis gear